"As long as there are 30 different teams, there will be 30 different philosophies on how to build a team," says Beane. "With this Oakland team, because of our limitations on resources, we have to get the most bang for our buck."

Beane also commented on several of Oakland's top prospects including Adam Piatt, Mark Mulder and Mario Encarnacion.

In case you missed Beane's April 18 chat, the following is an edited transcript.

Jim Foroudian: I was surprised that you brought up Mark Mulder to face a team like the Indians in his first start. Do you think it would have been better to bring up a more experienced starter for just this game and then bring up Mulder the next time the fifth spot comes around -- maybe against a weaker team?

Billy Beane: I think with Mark, it's not the ideal club to face in your major league debut, but Mark has shown a history of throwing strikes and that's critical if you're going to pitch against the Indians. They're a very patient club and if you get behind on them it becomes torture for the pitching staff and the entire team.

Billy Beane: Mario is probably the most athletically gifted kid in our organization. He's a five-tool player and has a chance to become a great offensive and great defensive player. Mario has benefited from spending a year at each level, even though he's just 22. If you look at his history, that tells you he'll compete for a spot sometime next year.

RobJ: Do you think it will take long for other clubs to emulate your philosophies regarding the construction of a productive lineup? And if they do, where does that leave the Athletics?

Billy Beane: I think building a club is certainly an individual belief. In Oakland, we are certainly strong believers in slugging and on-base percentage. That goes back to when Sandy Alderson ran the organization. As long as there are 30 different teams, there will be 30 different philosophies on how to build a team. With this Oakland team, because of our limitations on resources, we have to get the most bang for our buck.

RayFromOakland: You have put together a team that does not include a single African-American player. Aren't you afraid of alienating a large percentage of your local fan base?

Billy Beane: I think that problem is a symptom of baseball in general. Baseball has not done a great job of attracting the country's great athletes, particularly the African-American athletes. I think some of it is cyclical. The biggest sports icon in the last decade has been Michael Jordan. Hopefully, with his retirement, we'll see some of the kids following the great players in our sport and have more athletes to draw from.

I should add that all three of our outfielders in Triple-A are African-American -- Bo Porter, Roberto Vaz and Terrence Long, and all are a possibly just a day away or a year away from reaching the majors.

Mike in Bradenton: In this era of offensive explosion and quirky, hitter-oriented ballparks, do you think the philosophy of "pitching and defense wins championships" is a thing of the past?

Billy Beane: Not as long as the Braves keep going to the World Series. I think everyone would ideally love to have the defense along with the offense. In Oakland, because of our limited resources, we have to choose between offense and defense. We can't afford the great all-around players. We choose the players with the most bang for our buck and therefore we choose runs scored because you need to score runs in our league, even if you have a competitive pitching staff.

Mark: Why have the majors gone away from speed? A decade ago Ricky Henderson stole 100 bases whereas now you're lucky if you steal 40-50.

Billy Beane: I think with the amount of home runs, and the risk you run with trying to get one extra base with a stolen base, the SB is probably not worth the risk, given that the three-run homer does a lot more damage than the one extra base you acquire. It has become a game of the big-inning offense. One thing you don't want to do is give away outs. Certainly, there are times where it's great to have that player, but over the course of nine innings and 162 games, you would prefer to preserve your outs and increase your chances of a home run.

Grubblira: You have built a decent club by making good pickups like Gil Heredia and Matt Stairs and by improving the farm system. But is that really enough today to contend? You may contend for a Wild Card but it will be difficult to win the World Series unless you increase your budget. What are your plans for shelling out big bucks to get guys like A-Rod? Does Oakland ever plan to enter this crazy free agent market?

Billy Beane: Time will tell if it's enough to contend this year. It allowed us to compete at a high level in 1999, but once again that goes back to trying to maximize what you have as resources. We have to find guys like Heredia and Stairs, and like Billy Taylor in the past. The minor-league free-agent market has become a lifeline for us.

Mike Zaidlin: In my opinion your performance as a GM ranks as among the best in the history of baseball. It's obvious that you place more importance on on-base and slugging percentage than you do on batting average, and it seems that you are applying the theories of sabermetricians like Bill James and Pete Palmer far more so than any other GM. My question is, did their writings influence your understanding of the game, or did you arrive at your conclusions through other means?

Billy Beane: A bit overstated, but thanks for the compliment. The big influence on my management career has been Sandy Alderson. Sandy was the guy who I have drawn the most from. I have one of Bill James' books in the backseat of my car right now. The way I look at it, I try to use all the information available. It's a great time to be a GM with all the material available beyond the traditional scouting reports. I think you're foolish if you don't use everything you can to make the correct decisions.

As a former player, I try to combine traditional methods as well as the sabermetric methods. We have to be creative here.

JD-Boston: Do you read ESPN.com or other sites and publications that have openly embraced your organizational style? You seem to be the latest craze.

Billy Beane: So was Vanilla Ice. Once again, going back to the previous question, I read ESPN.com many times a day, along with any other information. My assistant GM, Paul DePodesta, and I try to find different ways of evaluating players and any little nuggets that may assist, we'll try to find. Again, there's so much info available. You're crazy not to use it. The Brian Cashmans and Doug Melvins of the world are doing the same thing we're doing.

It does seem to be turning into a younger man's job -- not just in approach, but in the pace of the job. Being a GM has become a 7-day-a-week, 24-hour-a-day job. The pace of anything is what will eventually move most people out of the position. Because of that, it has become a young man's job. Yes, we thrive on the pressure, but you can only wind the engine for so many years.

Kilgore: How did you rate some of the arms sent to Kansas City in the past year, Laxton, Witasick, Stein, etc.? Do any of these guys have the stuff to be quality major leaguers?

Billy Beane: Absolutely. They were all outstanding arms and great kids, all very intelligent. We think they'll realize their potential at the major league level. In moving them, we certainly run the risk of giving a rival club about three-fourths of a rotation.

On the Jeremy Giambi trade (for Brett Laxton), Rob Neyer almost blew a cover about two weeks before the trade when he wrote a complimentary article about Giambi. Last year, John Jaha and Matt Stairs were both healthy and very productive. But we wanted somebody we felt was major league ready to fill in this year at right field or DH in case they got hurt. With his minor-league numbers, we felt Jeremy could step in. We felt his minor-league track record was actually superior to his brother's.

Rod from Colorado: What is the organization's outlook for the future of baseball in Oakland? Would a new stadium ever be considered in Oakland or another part of the Bay?

Billy Beane: It is somewhat disappointing, given the new stadiums that have arrived and are due to arrive, that somehow our organization isn't in line right now. That being said, our responsibility as a baseball organization is to attract fans to what is still an outstanding baseball facility. If we do our job by putting a good team on the field, hopefully fans will come to the park. That being said, there doesn't seem to be anything on the horizon that indicates we'll be getting a new facility anytime soon.

bjflyers: How is Randy Velarde progressing?

Billy Beane: He's doing well. And it won't be too soon for myself and Art Howe. He's probably a week or 10 days away at best, but we do anticipate him coming back soon from what has been a little longer rehab period than we expected.

Greg: What kind of stuff do you guys do hours before a game?

Billy Beane: Paul DePodesto and I go over the series and the teams we're playing, sort of like the advance scouts do with the coaching staff. We look for situations we need to be aware of. Generally speaking, however, the days of a GM and assistant GM are spent in a state of constant evaluation, whether it is the majors, minors or preparing for the minor-league draft. You're reviewing your own players and any players who may be available.

ThomasDBerman: In the foreword to Baseball Prospectus 2000, Rob Neyer asserts that in time, "the empiricists will prevail." Your acknowledgement of the work of Bill James and others is a huge step in that direction. Still, many major league clubs pay little or no attention to sabermetrics, writing off researchers as stat-drunk computer geeks while harping on things such as situational hitting at their developmental minor league levels. At what point do you think every major league baseball club will begin to acknowledge the work of sabermetricians? (In my opinion, it'll lead to a higher level of baseball for all of us.)

Billy Beane: I think at some level, every team does pay some attention to that kind of analysis. Whether it becomes the entire basis of decision-making, or just some part of it, I'm not sure. The use of OBP is central in just about every discussion you have with a GM or scout. It just comes in higher dosages from some organizations.

Josh: What about getting Adam Piatt up to Oakland this year?

Billy Beane: Adam's off to a great start in Sacramento. His disadvantage is he plays behind Eric Chavez and Olmedo Saenz at third base. His big advantage is he's a right-handed bat who has the ability to move to another position if his bat forces him into the major leagues. Right-handed bats are precious in this organization right now, as you can tell from all the left-handed hitters we have.

Dirty Matt: Did you pick up any of Sandy Alderson's razor sharp wit while he was here? He is one of the fmost quoteable I have ever seen. So dry and intelligent and wickedly funny.

Billy Beane: Sandy has the great combination of being a Harvard Law grad and a Marine officer. There are probably very few of those combinations in the world today. I doubt I can follow in his footsteps when it comes to hitting a grand slam with quotes.

RICO: Which is more important: A new baseball facility to attract fans or a winning ballclub? It seems like a lot of owners these days think that a new facility is imperative, but they then ignore the quality of their team.

Billy Beane: A few years ago, I might have said a stadium would have been most important. I think now that today you probably have to combine a new stadium with a competitive team.

MTG: I have followed the A's fairly closely over the past couple of seasons, and one of the notables I have seen has been the regression of Ben Grieve. Has he become a disappointment? I know he hit a fair number of homers, but he fell back significantly in average and walks, both staples of your team (OBP oriented). What happened?

Billy Beane: The biggest thing with Grieve is you have to realize he's still just 23 years old and in just his third season. If you look at a player's trend line, while you'd like it to go straight up, it can have small parts that go up and down. We think Ben still has the ability to hit 35-40 homers, walk 100 times and hit .300. It just may not happen right away.

Scott: You seem to have a very talented hitting team. Are you concerned with your pitching staff, notably Tim Hudson with his terrible start this season?

Billy Beane: As much credit as we get for our hitting, people forget we were third in the AL in pitching last season. While we may not have a big name, we think it's still a competitive staff. As far as Hudson, as young as he is, we all got comfortable with the idea that he would be dominant every game. The fact he has struggled in his last two starts is just symptomatic of the challenges of any young pitcher.

Sammy from Miami, Fla: How do you scout a scout?

Billy Beane: Good question. A lot of scouts can get a lot of publicity for signing a big-time major leaguer. Sometimes, that's just the function of being in an area that has a lot of talent. Sometimes, the best scouts are the ones finding a Tim Hudson in the sixth round and Adam Piatt in the seventh round. That's a great way of evaluating scouts -- who they get in the late rounds. With most first-rounders, everybody has a consensus on those players.

I want to thank everybody for the great questions and the attention for the A's. It's been a long haul since we've been on the front pages and it's gratifying to see the enthusiasm for our ballclub.

Take care.